Jerry's Kids

What does it mean to be a great teacher? For some, they receive the admiration of their students, others receive local or national awards. A particular former teacher of mine received the ultimate honor...a fan club page dedicated to him on Facebook. Jerry Garrett was my high school World and American History teacher. He was also my favorite teacher in school because his class took you beyond the subject matter and expanded your brain in different directions which in many ways taught you to think in a higher level. Seemingly, the first two or three weeks had little to do with the subject matter being taught and more with learning a particular organization system and set of classroom procedures. Intermixed with this was a plethora of Garettisms, such as "status quo", "glass ceiling", "connotative", and others. He would use unorthodox means to teach, such as taking his classes on "field trips" that involved walking a class down the hall to another class and asking another teacher a question. As a student, I ended up spending more time with Mr. Garrett than most because he was the sponsor of the Scholar Bowl team in which I was part (our senior class brought home the school's only Scholar Bowl regional championship to date). After high school, I always try to make it a point to go back and talk to him to see how things are going (and to debate the issues of the day). I hope you take an opportunity to go to the following link below and read some of the comments shared by Facebook members who had the honor of being Mr. Garrett's students. As I did, I thought to myself what a difference one person can make in the lives of students.

Things I learned from Mr. G.